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H. A. STBARNS. APPARATUS FOE'BXTRAGTING OIL PROM ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES.

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Letters `Patent No. 103,519, dated May 24, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING OIL klil-ROM ANIMAL ANID VEGETAI BLE SUBSTANCES.

m The Schedule referred to in these Letters? Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom tt may concern Be it known that I, HENRY A. STnARNs, of Smithfield, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus Employed in the art of Extracting Oil from Animal and Vegetable Substances, by vthe use of hydrocarbon solvents; and I do hereby declare that the followingr specification, 'taken in connection with the drawings making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof'.

It is a well-knownfact that the light hydrocarbons, which can be obtained from coal-oil, shale-oil, and petroleum, though diiiering from each other in the relative proportions of their constituents ot' carbon and hydrogen, are all distinguished for a common property ot' beingable to dissolve animal and vegetable oils. Accordingly, this agent has been employed for extractipg essential oils from seeds and other vegetable products, and for cleaning machinery waste.

To employ this process upon any considerable scale, special machinery is necessary, which shall be adapted to the use of a cleansing-and solvent-agent so volatile and so dangerous as the light hydrocarbons ci' petroleum and earth oils.

It is practically impossible to manipulate any large mass of cotton waste, for example, which is saturated with a hydrocarbon solvent, under circumstances where the fumes can escape` into the atmosphere, both on account of the dan 1er involved from the explosive nature of the solvent, aswell as the loss. of

material due to its volatility.

Furthermore, it is essential to the economical working of the process that the solvent, after it has performed its intended oce, should be extracted from the brous or other material subjected to its action, together with the animal or vegetable-oils with which it has combined, with the view of subsequently recovering separately, for further uses, the hydrocarbon solvent and the oil which together compose the mixed solution.

My invention relates to certain improvements in the apparatus to be employed in the art of cleansing waste or other material by the use of hydrocarbon solvents, and consists trifugal extractor, so constructed as to prevent the escape of the hydrocarbon vapors into the open atmosphere, in combination with a close vessel containing a supply ot' hydrocarbon solvent, and with a condenser to confdense andliquefy the vapors which escape from the mixed solution within the extractor during the process of extraction.

In the drawings there is represented an apparatus which, were it open at the top, would be the hydro extractor in common use in various manufacturing in the employment of a cen-f establishments. To adapt it for they purpose y de-4 signed, I add toit a, lid or cover, A, which should he packed at the joint, so as to sustain a considerable internal pressure without any leakage.

'lhe spindle B, which drives the interior revolving` basket C, peculiar to such machines, should also be packed at the joint.

In the top of the cover A is made an opening, of sufficient size to introduce and remove the waste or other material to be cleansed, and this opening is furnished with a removableA man-hole plate, D, which should be packed at the joint, and, when the machine is in use, be secured by a suitable yoke-clamp, a convenient form for which is shown in the drawing.

E is an inlet-pipe, which, it is to be supposed, is connected with a close vessel containing the light l1 ydrocarbon to be used, and through which the solvent is admitted at pleasure to the extractor' by means oi' a stop-cock, the vessel containing the hydrocarbon being placed at a higher eleva-tion than the extractor, or, it preferred,`its contents are forced into the extractor under pressure.

F is an exit-pipe Afor the vapors disengaged from the hydrocarbon solvent, and it is to be supposed that it is in connection with a wornnor other suitable condenser, by Ameans of which apparatus vapors passing through the same can be condensed into liquids.

' -G is a pipe located near the bottom of the cistern H, and furnished with a stop-cock for drawing off at pleasure the liquid contents of the cistern.

The operation of the apparatus will be readily understood to be as follows: l

lhe basket C having been supplied with a suitable quantity of soiled waste, for instance, the stop-cock in the pipe E, connecting with the close tank containing hydrocarbon, is opened, and the cisterirH, filled with the solvgpt.' After theha-sbeen subjected totlie action of the solvent for thc necessary length of time to dissolve the oil which it contains, the stopcock in the discharge-pipe G is opened, and the fluid contentsofthecistern are drawn off into an appropriate close receiver. vThe centrifugal extractor is then set'in motion, and the fluid matters contained in the' fibers of the waste are driven off and'run through the discharge-pipeG into the receiver. In the course of Vthe process of' extractionkvapors are constantly rising, which iiud their way through the exit-pipe F, thus relieving auyinternal pressure from the same, and are condensed into a liquid form.

The whole process of cleansing and drying the waste is thus conducted, without danger or inconvenience from the fumes of the hydrocarbon, and with the loss oiA a very small percentage of' the solvent agent. l

I am aware that Letters Patent of the United States have been grantedto Frederick Lambe,on the 19th day of April, A. D. 1,870, for certainr improvements in the process of treating and purifying paraffine, involving the use of an apparatus which consists of revolving beaters, in combination with a hydro extractor. Such apparatus would he unsuitable for the art for which my invention is applicable, andl make no claim to any of the machinery described in said patent.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Let-ters Patent, is-

An apparatus adapted for use in the art of treating Witnesses PETER F. HUGHES, ORVILLE PECKHAM. 

